Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:
Pandora is using social to think local: This summer, Pandora launched four new stations targeting specific music genres and specific cities. This Forbes article details how the online radio company developed that programming. The project used expert curators as well as a window into how listeners in those locations responded to and engaged with different types of music. “When you’re trying to get a regional flavor, you really don’t want to sound artificial,” said Marcos Juarez, a DJ and Latin music expert who helped Pandora with the stations. “The focus is trying to be as representative as possible of what listeners want.”
Jelli co-founder explains how programmatic works: Doug Irwin at Radio Magazine interviewed Jateen Parekh, co-founder of programmatic advertising technology company Jelli. Parekh discussed the technical details of the service, a useful primer for anyone interested in how programmatic works.
Russian government could assume royalty collection duties: Russia’s communications ministry has proposed that the government take over the role of collecting copyright royalties. Russia currently has three collections societies, and they have faced criticism for making small payouts. The nation is in the midst of reviewing how it handles royalties, and the first round of recommendations from the ministry, which included direct agreements between rights holders and collection groups, triggered negative reactions from the music industry.